STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER MICHAEL O’RIELLY
Re: Amendment of Part 11 of the Commission’s Rules Regarding Emergency Alert System, PS Docket 
No. 15-94.
The Commission should do what we can, within our statutory authority, to assist and protect our 
law enforcement professionals and the American public at large.  To the extent that an appropriate public 
safety agency finds that the BLU alert code could be helpful and voluntarily decides to activate this 
warning, I will support their ability to do so.  However, I am not sure this code, if ever triggered, would 
provide added protection for public safety officials or the general public, as the item suggests.  When 
events that would now generate a BLU alert code occurred in the past, our nation’s local broadcasters 
traditionally jumped right into action to inform the public.  Moreover, public safety officials already have 
separate devices and codes to communicate if and when such horrific events occur.  
For this reason, the cost-benefit analysis in this item continues our streak of subpar work in the 
public safety area.  For instance, instead of a true analysis of the benefits, it dredges up the same 
discredited value of a statistical life that the Commission abused in the past. 
But, more importantly, we should pray that this code is seldom needed because its use would 
mean a law enforcement officer is seriously injured, killed, in imminent danger, or missing — truly awful 
scenarios that heartbreakingly have remained a consistent threat for those in this line of work.  I don’t 
have the right words to fully express my appreciation to all of the brave souls who serve as law 
enforcement officers in their communities, but for the men and women who pursue this chosen 
profession, may the circumstances and outcomes contemplated in this item never happen again.